The hallway stretched in front of me, empty. I sprinted, checking the doors with my hand as I ran.

Locked, locked, locked, empty, bathroom. Nobody in the stalls.

I kept running. The hallway turned, ending in a big round room. A stack of tables waited at the opposite side, where two other hallways branched off. Next to the tables, Cristal had halted, obviously trying to choose an escape route.

“Cristal,” I sang out, sending my magic her way.

She turned, a panicked look on her face.

“I’m so glad you’re safe,” I said in a cheerful, singsong way.

Her mind fluoresced in my magic’s eye, a pale glowing smudge. She had a lot of power. It burned bright, but her will was weak and she wasn’t a mental mage. My magic wrapped around her, cushioning her from the world and reality. It was almost too easy.

Cristal turned to me.

If I pumped too much magic into her, she would do anything to keep me happy. I needed her to be honest and answer my questions, but not so far gone that she started lying. Linus would have to defend this interrogation, and I didn’t want to give anyone ammunition to question it. It had to be evident that Cristal still had some control over herself.

“You know what helps me when I’m scared? I like to sing a little song. Twinkle, twinkle, little star . . .”

“How I wonder what you are,” Cristal finished. “It’s a baby song. It’s stupid.”

Perfect. “Do you feel better?”

“I do. But I’m still scared.” She knotted the fabric of her skirt in her hands. “Big events are difficult for me. This was supposed to be safe. It was supposed to be nice. There are only nice people here and I have two bodyguards.”

I had no idea how much time I would have with her. “It’s okay. You’re safe with me.”

“I know. You seem like a nice person.”

I turned my phone on and started Bern’s app. He’d written the custom piece of software specifically for times like this. With one tap, I turned on recording, encrypted it, and uploaded it to our cloud. Even if I lost the phone, the conversation would be saved.

“Tell me about Lawrence. Was he a good subject for your research?”

Cristal frowned. “He survived. In terms of compatibility, we could have done better. The goal of the process is to enhance magical talent without the warping side effect.”

“What did you use to enhance him?”

“The 1012 variant.”

No good. “Variant of what?”

Cristal gave me a look like I was stupid. Even besotted, she still kept her natural disdain for people below her level of expertise. That was some deep personality flaw.

“Variant of the Osiris serum.”

“Is 1012 a derivative of 971?”

Cristal gave me a bright smile. “Of course it is.”

“Why are you experimenting with the secondary application of the Osiris serum on human subjects? Do you know that it’s illegal?”

“Throughout human history a great many things have been illegal. There are always people who stand in the way of progress. There is no difference between Galileo and me. He was the first to discover that the Earth revolved around the sun. I’ll be the first to cure a failing vector.” She paused, looked at me, and added, “A person born into a magical family whose talent is weaker than their parents’ magic.”

She had dumbed it down for me. How nice. I wondered what she would say if I told her that the model of heliocentrism was first developed by Aristarchus in the third century BC, eighteen centuries before the birth of Galileo. “That’s so interesting, Cristal. Who is financing this important research?”

“Diatheke. Benedict isn’t a scientist, but he understands the value of scientific discovery.”

“Do you know what Diatheke does?”

“Of course. They’re assassins.”

And that didn’t bother her at all. “How many warped assassins have you supplied to Diatheke?”

“Three.”

“How many test subjects died?”

“Seventeen.”

“How were these people selected?”

“They were homeless and addicts. They would do anything for their next hit.”

That had to be enough. She admitted to doing the research, she acknowledged that it was illegal, and she specified that an assassin firm was paying her bills in return for her supplying them with warped killers. Linus couldn’t ask for anything more. It was time for my questions. “Why do you need Halle?”

Cristal frowned again. “Why are you interested in Halle? Halle doesn’t matter. You should be interested in me. I’m the important one. Halle is a tool.”

She saw Halle as a rival for some reason. I fed more of my magic into our bond. This part wouldn’t have to be presented to the National Assembly.

A happy smile stretched Cristal’s lips. She linked her arm with mine and stared at me with adoration.

“Tell me about Halle. It would make me happy.”

“She’s a stupid girl. I’m using her to counteract the toxicity of the serum. You would think a person in her circumstances would figure out that she was trapped and try to please the people who have power over her. If I tell Benedict that she’s not useful, she’ll just disappear, and nobody will ever find her. I’m keeping her alive. She should be grateful. Instead, everything is a fight with her. I actually had to threaten to have her sister and brother killed to get her to do the simplest things. I mean, does that seem rational to you?”

“Clearly she isn’t as smart as you.”

Cristal nodded enthusiastically. “I’m very smart. I’m not a failing vector. I’m smarter than my parents.”

That’s great. “Where is Halle now?”

“At my lab.”

“House Ferrer lab? Biocine?”

“No, my personal lab. The real lab. Biocine is where my parents work.”

“Where is the real lab? Can you give me the address?”

Cristal’s mouth gaped open. Her eyes widened, her eyebrows rose, pulled together, her lips stretched, baring the edge of her teeth. Horror stamped her face, and she stood petrified, locked in place, but shaking. I turned around. Behind us, at the mouth of the hallway leading back to the Grand Foyer, Benedict stood, his face twisted by pure rage. The aegis waited two feet behind him, his face flat. He had seen it all before and none of it bothered him.

Cristal fell to the floor and scrambled up on all fours. A high-pitched animal shriek broke free from her mouth. She spun and dashed down the nearest hallway, sprinting away like she was running for her life.

“Well.” Benedict raised his arms. “Here we are. She’s an expensive asset. It will take me weeks to undo what I did. Stupid bitch.”

I didn’t ask which one of us he was referring to. He was a combat Prime and he had an aegis. My best bet was to make it past him and run back to the Grand Foyer, where I’d have the combined firepower of Alessandro and Linus and hundreds of witnesses. Problem was, Benedict stood between me and that hallway.

“I’ll need that phone,” Benedict ordered.

“You can have it. Let me go and I’ll give it to you.”

“Let you go?” Benedict tilted his head. “Do you have any idea how difficult it is to recruit a Prime from an active House? I cultivated Cristal like a priceless orchid. I flattered her, I did her favors, I consoled her when she failed, I rewarded her when she succeeded. I have eighty million and four years wrapped up in this project, and you almost fucked it up for chump change and a dead woman.”

I could run into the hallway behind me, but I wasn’t a fast runner. If he didn’t catch me, his magic would.

Benedict shook his head. “Until now I stayed my hand, because I thought you were working for Montgomery, following that mishap. But now I have confirmation that you’re on your own. So, let me break it down for you, Ms. Baylor. You’re not going anywhere. You will hand me that phone and walk with me out of this theater. You will get into my car and you will smile the whole time, because if you don’t, I’ll murder your entire family and I’ll make sure they suffer.”

You arrogant asshole. I slid the phone into my clutch and gave him a tepid golf clap.

His magic slithered out of him, splaying out like a black thundercloud. The ghostly serpents snapped, demonic mouths forming and melting.

The more I delayed him, the higher the chances were that either Alessandro or Linus would get here. I stalled.

“At first I thought you were creepy, but intelligent. Sadly, I was mistaken. Only an utter moron would bring a Madero into this setting. You’ve offended two hundred of Houston’s most powerful Primes. Yeraz, one of your employees, attacked Lilian Woods in public, in front of witnesses. Do you really think you’re coming back from this?”

“Nothing that can’t be fixed.” Benedict stared at me, his gaze cold and hungry. “Last chance. Come with me or die here.”